After one more look around, Max rolled his shoulders and closed his mind to the thought that he may have been played for a fool.
He suddenly felt tired, and decided to make his exit too, resigned to the fact that Shauna really had left.
ON THE DRIVE home, Max spotted Shauna by the side of the freeway. She was still wearing the lavender dress, and she lugged a gasoline can at her side. The drizzle of rain had drenched her entirely, darkening the silk lavender gown and making her look like a reject from a bad horror flick.
Had that been her car with the badly dented rear bumper he’d passed half a mile back?
“Need help?” he asked, stepping out of his truck.
Her hair was sloping over her right ear, and her makeup was ghastly. And still he resisted the urge to pull her close for a long, tongue-twisting kiss.
“Oh, thank God!” Her face split into a weary grin. “Brandy’s grandma left a gift behind and I volunteered to get it, and it figures my car would break down, and then my phone isn’t getting any reception, so I couldn’t call and God, I’m so glad you found me.”
The ache that had been growing in his chest eased. “Glad I could come to your rescue. Hop in.”
He shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. She hung on to the lapels and trembled.
“Thanks. Are the newlyweds still there? Did they leave?”
Max put the gasoline can into the bed of this truck. “Yeah, the limo took them to the airport about half an hour ago.”
“I can’t believe I missed it.”
She looked so dejected, he brushed a kiss on her cheek. “I took pictures. I’ll show ’em to you. Now get in the car before we both get soaked.”
“You have leather seats,” she said apologetically. “Don’t you have a towel or something?”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s just water.”
She reluctantly got in.
Once he got his truck on the road, he rolled up the windows and turned the heater on to ward off the chill. She moved her feet to the base vent.
“Did you eat dinner?” he asked.
“I had some appetizers before I left.”
If that’s all she’d had since breakfast, she must be starved. He took the next freeway exit and doubled back. Her hoopty turned out to have more than just a gas problem. She practically had no oil in the engine, and her belts were shot to hell. The bucket of bolts was a far cry from the luxurious vehicle she’d driven as a teenager.
“You’ll need a tow,” he said.
“Oh.” She frowned, and he knew she was weighing the cost. “I’ll take care of it. Let’s load up your suitcase into my truck.” And I’ll take you home.
He popped her trunk and put her suitcase in his trunk, then called his trusty mechanic and scheduled her car to be towed to his house. While she’d gathered a few more items from her backseat, he quickly checked her phone and immediately realized it wasn’t that she was stuck in an inaccessible spot, but rather the phone services had been cut off. The kind of thing that happened when the bill wasn’t paid.
5
Shauna couldn’t help the sinking feeling she had as Max drove through her old neighborhood and up memory lane. When Max and his mother had managed the growing gardening business, all the lawns were equally as immaculate, lush green, dotted with well-placed blooms.
He drove past the upper-class established homes, to where a lone house sat, seemingly in the middle of a golf course.
The last time she’d lived in the neighborhood, she remembered the property had been intended to be a small golf course community. Apparently, it had become one home, surrounded by greens.
“Where are the other homes?” she asked.
“The developer ran into financial trouble.”
Great. Probably one of her father’s dealings. In any case, Max had a gorgeous house, surrounded by beautiful golf-length grass and not a single neighbor for at least a quarter mile.
Max parked in the turnabout in the front of his house and unlocked the front door.
He’d exceeded her expectations, but then she should’ve known he would. Everything about his home was classy and elegant, right down to the entry rug. The African masks on the wall went beautifully with the more understated Deco furniture. The indigo blue glass sculpture in the entryway was exquisite, the perfect statement of his taste. She immediately recognized the artist, the talent, and knew it carried a very expensive price tag.
“Welcome to my home,” he said.
“It’s very beautiful,” she said honestly, feeling like a bedraggled country bumpkin.
“Thanks.”
There was a scuffle and yapping from behind one of the doors. “That’s Rufus, my puppy. He likes to race in through his doggie door and will keep going until I greet him.”
She shifted her small suitcase in her hand. “Any chance you could point me to the nearest restroom? I’ve got to get out of this dress.”
“If you didn’t look so frozen, I’d offer to help,” he said, sounding angelic and looking otherwise.
She was so cold, her teeth threatened to chatter. “Maybe later?”
“Go ahead and get comfortable,” he said, pointing to a set of double doors a short distance away. “In fact, take a hot bath if you like. There should be plenty of towels available.”
After trekking down the rainy, smoggy freeway, she thought the idea sounded wonderful. “Thanks.”
Ten minutes later, she stood under the spray of a hot shower, in heavenly bliss. She hadn’t dared to dream that she would someday be taking a shower in Max’s bathroom, anticipating his lovemaking.
It embarrassed and shamed her that she didn’t have more to offer him than her heart… .
Her father had called him a screwup, and he’d turned out to be anything but. It must’ve really humiliated her father to see that she was the one with the junky car, the dismal bank account, and the extra night job.
Max now had a tidy, expensive life, and there was no place for her in it. The contrast was more than ironic. Next to his reputation, the Williams name was like drops of ink in clear water.
But how did he feel about her?
Hell, he probably figured they’d have a quick fling last night, and her virginity had up and complicated matters. It was all one big confusing mess. Her mind was telling her one thing and her body another.
Damn …
She let the spray of water hit her in the face, her heart aching. Somehow, she had to get herself out of this mess without destroying the fragile friendship they’d developed and still keep her heart intact, if that was possible.
After the languid shower, she borrowed a robe she found behind the bathroom door and bundled up in it. She loved that it still had traces of Max’s cologne. Like a miser, she tucked that too into her memory for later.
When she got back to the bedroom, she sat on the nearby leather chair by the enormous fireplace, hungry enough that when her stomach rumbled, she raided her supply of lewd fortune cookies still in her purse. One fortune encouraged her to “Lick it like a lollipop,” and the other asked, “Do you have ties that bind?”
She leaned her head back on the seat and sighed, feeling a little weak from the steamy shower. Soon, weariness caught up with her, resting heavily on her eyelids, and she dozed.
MAX BROUGHT A tray of crackers, spreads, and fruit into the bedroom and stopped when he found Shauna asleep in his favorite chair. If she’d looked tired before, she now looked positively exhausted. There were dark smudges under her eyes, the pulse at her throat beat steadily, but he felt a trace of guilt for not allowing her much sleep the night before.
If what Jamal said was true, she was a paralegal by day and a waitress by night, which probably meant she didn’t get much sleep anyway.
What had happened to her dreams of being a teacher?
He placed the tray on the dresser and turned back the bedcovers. Then as carefully as possible, he carried her to the bed, freely looking at the parts of her body
that were revealed as the robe fell open. It brought back the memory of seeing the tiny but vivid red stain on his white sheets the night before, her virginity revealed like an exotic blossom.
He covered her with the bedsheets, then decided that he too could stand a shower and a nap.
Much later, freshly clean and in new boxer shorts, he returned to the chair to contemplate her, wondering why he felt such satisfaction at seeing her in his bed. Time seemed to slip away as he watched her breathe, as he counted each of her eyelashes and wondered at the dark caramel smoothness of her skin. He remained there until the music of rain outside his bedroom window had dwindled to occasional droplet-chimes.
In all that time, she’d slept so deeply, she’d hardly moved a muscle. He could’ve watched her for the rest of the night, but finally, he crawled into bed with her, anchored an arm around her, and pulled her against his front, then held her until he too fell asleep.
SHAUNA AWOKE TO the feel of Max’s tongue heading south. She was half-awake as he brushed aside the robe and pushed her legs apart, but came completely awake when his mouth found her vagina, dipped into her until she was wet with arousal. He explored her with intimate, deep-tongue kisses, his bristly jaw becoming another erotic contact against her inner thighs with each movement of his mouth. Two of his fingers filled her sensitive sheath, stroking her even as his mouth licked and nuzzled her sensitive folds and nub.
Every sensuous stroke from his fingertips built upon the storm of sensations, riding her to the brink of an orgasm.
She tossed her head helplessly and moaned his name, clutching his head in her hands and rocking her hips for more. It was magical and hopeless, making her feel more naked and vulnerable than ever.
The hum and suck of his tongue suddenly pushed her over the top until she came undone, crying out in wonder, unable to hold anything back.
His clever, languid licks continued long after the trembling in her womb had melted into weakness. Moments later, his muffled grunt told her he’d also found his release, alone.
She kept her eyes shut when after a while he rose and went to the bathroom to clean up. Suddenly self-conscious, she wrapped herself in the blue robe and then sat up in bed, very aware of the sensitivity that softly throbbed deep between her thighs.
Max came back to the room with a towel around his waist and a flirtatious gleam in his eyes. “For the record, you started that,” he said.
She blushed furiously, fragments of her erotic dream filtering in. “Impossible.”
“All I know is that you woke me with your frisky hands, so I had to, ah, take some liberties and teach you a little something.”
“Ah. Lessons.”
He wiggled his eyebrows and moved closer to the bed. “Yup.” She let her gaze trail down his tight physique, over skin that still gleamed from his shower, over dips and tight cuts of his muscled abs.
“Your lessons are quite enjoyable.” She reached for the towel, her hand trembling slightly as she slid her hand beneath to stroke his sex. She inched her face closer as well.
“Let’s see how I do.”
She was delighted to see his smile crumble into an aroused moan as she drew him into her mouth.
AS IF BY unspoken agreement, neither of them mentioned the future, the present, or the past. Max gloried in her newfound sexual freedom and her refreshing need to discover what intimately pleased them both.
Above all, he was thrilled to be her first lover, in every sexual aspect. It was beyond intoxicating to see each new expression of pleasure as it crossed her face. The fact that she had an appetite for long sensual explorations aroused him more than any woman ever had.
He introduced her to the pleasures of cold honey on her nipples, whipped cream on her navel and ice cubes down her spine. They made a delicious mess out of the chocolate and caramel syrup he’d dug out of the fridge, and in the end, they’d made love, all slick and sticky with sweetness and sweat.
Later that night, after a long sensuous turn in the shower, they fell back into the bed, and she tickled his chest with a feather she found in a flower arrangement. When he used the same feather on her legs, she’d burst into helpless giggles that even now made him smile.
It felt like his heart had cracked open, like it had found something rare and so special, he almost didn’t want to waste any time even sleeping without her.
But in the soft twilight, he indulged in wistful dreams, easily imagining her in his life this way, waking with her every morning, spending time in the kitchen or even doing something as bland as watching the news together on the couch. It was easy to imagine going to bed with her every night too, and yes, maybe even seeing her with a large, round belly, ripe with his child.
That part stunned him, but he couldn’t deny the truth. He wanted her in a permanent way.
For a moment, the desire to have all of that was so strong that it seemed to top all those days when money was scarce, his hopes even scarcer, and his unrelenting drive was the only thing sustaining him.
Shauna was the epitome of everything he’d aspired to admire, to impress, to possess. And even though he was on top of his game now, making good money and holding his own against the world, he wondered if the gamble he had made was worth it.
COME ON, I’LL take you to the Blue Sturgeon for dinner,” Max offered when Shauna’s stomach rumbled. They’d been rooting through his freezer, and Shauna noticed he had way too many TV dinners.
“You remember the Blue Sturgeon, right?” Max asked. “It beats this frozen stuff, and it’s right on the river in Old Sac.”
Shauna quickly glanced at her purse, knowing he’d probably pay, but wishing she could afford it. Besides, she didn’t have anything suitable to wear, and his oversize T-shirt was quite comfortable. The Blue Sturgeon had been one of her father’s favorite “business lunch” restaurants anyway, and she didn’t want to deal with that kind of intrusion, at least not today.
“Tell you what,” she said. “You have enough stuff here in your pantry that I can make some corn bread and chili guaranteed to knock your socks off.” She deliberately looked down past his shirtless chest and jeans to his bare masculine feet. “Oh, look! And you haven’t even tasted it yet.”
“Wait a minute, how many jalapenos are you going to put in there?” he asked, raising his eyebrow.
“It’s a secret family recipe,” she lied breezily, grabbing some cans from the pantry. She looked at the array of shiny pots, trying to decide which one to use.
“You do know how to cook, right?”
“Git out of the kitchen!”
Max ended up getting in her way every time she turned around, taking advantage of the slightest opportunity to cop a feel, or worse, try to give her advice on how to cook.
They ended up eating every last bit of the chili while standing at the kitchen counter, sopping up the remaining sauce with the tasty corn bread and feeding it to each other.
The rumble of a tow truck coming toward Max’s house had Rufus, the puppy hound, running circles around her feet and then chasing Max to the door.
Shauna watched from the window as the mechanic unhitched her car and handed Max a paper, which he signed. They spoke for a while; then the man tipped his cap at Max and drove off.
Once Max came through the door, Shauna reached for the paper, but Max folded it and tucked it into his back pocket.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s taken care of.”
She forced herself to keep her smile. “Yeah, right. Hand it over.” Rufus was still making a racket, the mutt’s large ears flopping about as he ran back and forth. He wove between her feet, but Max caught her before she could stumble. She used the move to reach for his back pocket for the paper.
“My car is my problem,” she said, brushing a kiss on his lips. “Not yours.”
She quickly unfolded it, almost gasping out loud at the sum at the bottom of the sheet. Jesus H. Christ! That was going to gobble up almost her next paycheck!
Her fingers were numb when Max pul
led the sheet from her hands. “I had him fix a couple of things,” he explained.
“I see that.” She took it back again, already juggling the spending cuts necessary to cover the amount.
“Look,” Max sighed. “I send him a lot of business because he knows his way around an engine. This is a write-off for me.”
She put her hand on his chest and stopped him. “Thanks, but I can’t accept that, Max.” Her gut knotted, but she made sure he understood. “I’ll pay you back by this Friday.”
“Shauna—”
“Geez, Max, I’m not with you for your money, so just agree with me, then shut up, and kiss me.” Her smile felt like a tight grimace, but she kept it on her face.
“Shut up.”
“Ah, yes. And kiss you.”
They were still kissing when Max walked her back against the wall for leverage, but she bumped against the entry table, sending a stack of mail crashing to the floor.
Rufus immediately chased after the envelopes and caught one. Max muttered a curse and sprang into action to get it back. Shauna laughed, reaching down to help.
Shauna heard the tear of paper when Max finally pulled the envelope from Rufus’s teeth, but her eyes were riveted to the envelope in her hand.
A business card with Max’s name on it flittered across the tiled floor when she lifted the envelope.
Bracksony Incorporated.
The company that had ruthlessly put her father’s last remaining company out of business.
Brackson, Incorporated.
Max was in the process of wiping the envelope on his pants when he froze in midaction.
In the blink of an eye, the fragile playfulness that had bloomed so beautifully between them cracked under the question. Still he didn’t answer.
Her mind raged in a hundred different directions. Brackson? What did Max Jackson have to do with it? … Jackson?
Brackson?
The name of Max’s longtime friend popped into her mind: Eli Brasler. The guy had been in her math class. He’d also been Max’s best buddy. Brasler and Jackson. Brackson, Inc.
It all made sense, and felt like a dim light was flickering on.
She stared blindly at the envelope as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
Mr. Satisfaction Page 10
